On my drive to the library yesterday to return a book.
I always take the back way because it’s quite lovely by the river.
Well. It’s been raining for three days, and I am over it. Just when our basement dries out, it starts again. Yesterday was incredibly foggy – dangerously so. I really would rather have snow, though that can also be a pain in the tush. But it’s pretty. Pretty much all of the snow is gone now.
I have to go downstairs in a minute to empty the bucket in the dehumidifier. A daily chore.
I finished a book of short stories by Kate Atkinson (that was the book I was returning to the library) and now I’m reading this week’s chunk of Wolf Hall.
I’ve been thinking of my mom’s Shirley Temple doll – the Canadian version, rather than the version by Ideal. My mom never really liked her and in typical Grandma fashion, even after Mom requested the American doll, Grandma bought the doll in Canada. She’s got to be 90 years old now and she’s made of composition, as dolls in that era were. Part of the composition by the inside corner of one eye is missing. There’s a little hole there. And despite my efforts several years ago, her hair is a mess. Yesterday, I said ‘”Enough!” and I started to research how to curl her mohair wig. There are some good videos out there. I started to gently pick apart the mats in her hair, ordered some narrow sponge rollers and papers and, hopefully, I’ll set her hair this weekend. I have to cover her with a towel when I do that because you don’t want to get composition wet.
She’s lying on one of the suitcases that hold Blythe clothes right next to me here in the den. I have to do a bit more work on the hair mats today. Frankly, she looks better already because her hair is fluffed out. That’s not the look for Shirley Temple, of course, so – fingers crossed – she’ll have some nice banana curls soon. If not? Oh, well.
I’d like to patch that hole in the composition, too. I’m researching it. I don’t care if it looks perfect.
I had 1950s versions of a Shirley Temple doll, but they were much smaller. I’d actually love to have a vintage Ideal Shirley Temple. I’ve always loved them. Shirley was the same age as my mom, who was also a Shirley. I grew up watching her movies with my mom and I’ve always adored her.
I suppose I’m too old at this point, At least, that’s how I feel today.
Mere just recovered from another case of Covid. I swear, I don’t understand people. Her work involves going to the house of whatever patient she is treating. In this case, the mother didn’t tell Mere that she’d just been exposed to Covid. She didn’t think she had it. But she did.
Okay. Have to finish cleaning out our kitchen junk drawer, something I have ignored for several years.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday,
I remember the Christmas I got my Shirley Temple doll. I opened the box and my younger sister was so upset because she had asked for a Shirley Temple doll and said that Santa made a mistake by giving it to me. I pointed out that she had a box the same size as mine and she found her own Shirley Temple and was so relieved! Mine had a blue dress and hers had a yellow dress. Ours were larger dolls. I gave mine to a doll hospital store a few years ago.
Of course, Santa wouldn’t give a doll to one of you and not the other! What a magical Christmas that must have been.
Thanks, Ellen.
Stay safe.
Sorry to hear Meredith has Covid. It definitely has not gone away. Hope she recovers quickly and Little Buddy doesn’t get it.
We all have that appropriately named “junk drawer”. Oh, what treasures we might find says she hopefully, lol.
I like Shirley Temple, too. In fact, I just bought Shirley Temple paper dolls to send to a friend for Valentine’s Day. It’s a reprint of the original published in 1937 – two dolls and 16 outfits. I found it on Amazon for $12. Fun! Can’t wait to see your Shirley after her makeover. It’s grey and drizzly here, too. I’m almost wishing for snow. Hugs, Elaine
I have some of those paper dolls somewhere. I purchased them several years ago. Now…where are they?
Stay safe, Elaine.
I look forward to seeing your Shirley Temple doll when the hair is done. So sorry Mere got Covid again. I think people have gotten too lax about sharing when they are ill or exposed. I am still not shopping in stores as much. After two bouts of Covid I pray to never get it again. This weather has me feeling Blah but I’m trying to just read to escape it all.
They are definitely too lax. I’m amazed by how many people – especially older people like us – do not wear masks.
Same here with reading. It’s blah out there so I escape into the pages of a book.
Stay safe, Linda.
My mother gave me her composition doll from the 1930s when I was 10 in 1961. She repaired the doll’s cracks with Plaster of Paris. She then used a very tiny brush with flesh colored paint that my uncle used on his model airplanes. She mixed brown, white and yellow to get the exact skin match. I thought my mom was a magician. The doll turned out just lovely. I kept her until I was about thirty. Sadly, she was destroyed when my basement flooded.
I found a substance online that I think might work, but I’m going to concentrate on the hair first. Good for your mom! I’m so sorry that you lost her in a flood.
Stay safe.
The photo from your drive looks very intriguing, like it could be in a mystery film…or book setting. Hope you have good luck with Shirley Temple’s makeover. I always loved her movies. She lived her adult life here in the Bay area, about a half hour away.
I loved her. I remember watching Shirley Temple Storybook Theater on television. I lapped up anything connected with her@
Stay safe, Barrie.
Wow, good luck with the Shirley Temple doll; if anybody can do it, you can, Claudia! She’ll be cute and pretty again.
Gosh, your weather (photo today) looks SO chilly. I won’t complain being cold all night in my house when it was in the 40s outside at 3:00 this morning. ‘Cause why? It’s sunny and lovely at 10am; 60 degrees; clear, blue sky. Just an observation, not meant to ‘rub it in’ with those experiencing less-nice weather. We are at eighty percent of our needed rainfall for the year where I am in Southern Calif, so this is a welcome thing, as long as we just don’t overdo it in Feb-March; but it’s surely nice to not have to consider another year of drought and enjoy this two-year respite.
Happy weekend to you and Don.
Meant to say “Get well, soon!” for your sister, who puts herself out there, always doing good, only to get sick. Unfair. How can ‘others’ be so cruel and negligent so as to affect/infect another. It’s just so selfish when Mere is the opposite and instead a giver and a helper.
It’s unbelievably clueless and selfish. She couldn’t work on Monday or Tuesday so she lost income because of this woman.
xo
I’m happy to hear you’re at 80 percent of needed rainfall, Vicki. That’s good news!
Stay safe.
Foggy with rain here, too. The rain is melting the snow…but we still have a ways to go til we see grass. I’m most worried about our evergreens, being so bent over from the weight of the snow. I hope they’ll return to their original shape.
Good luck with Shirley! ;)
I hope they recover, Donnamae. I know what that worry feels like. Fingers crossed.
Stay safe.
hope meredith feels 100% better by now, is testing negative and that z and her other sons avoid covid.
that person should have rescheduled the appointment and not put meredith and her family at risk. ugh.
i understand the “feeling” of it, but nope, you’re not “too old” to repair the shirley temple doll. with your creativity and attention to detail, you will do a great job. :)
i love the river photo and would drive miles out of my way to see that on a daily basis. :)
had an experience a couple days ago that i can laugh about (me) now, but not at the moment it happened. i went to a quiet place where many times i’ve seen deer and found a clearing where i could leave them some food, but i couldn’t walk up to it (most ground is still knee deep in snow here). i looked around and found a small patch of grass that i could use to move closer to the good spot (since i cannot throw worth anything) and i stepped towards and onto it. i looked down at something brown that would easily fit in the palm of my hand and told myself to not step closer as it might be deer poop. i was at most maybe a foot away from that brown thing, tossed the deer food, then bent down a bit to confirm if what i’d seen was poop (and that i hadn’t stepped in it) when all of a sudden this brown thing very quickly reared up on little stick-like legs (folded-up wings actually) and showed fangs … it was a bat! :0 afterwards i felt bad for the bat and prayed for it, but before that, i screamed as loud and long as i ever have and very, very quickly backed away … eeeeek!
otherwise, beyond the bat and the usual chores/errands, i am taking it easy and hope you all do, too. stay safe in every way!
kathy
I wonder why a bat was on the ground? It must have been frightening (but amazing) to see those fangs!
Stay safe, Kathy.
they were tiny, but they were fangs so, yes, i was scared! scary and it happened too fast for me to be amazed by it … haha. i was shocked that it was a living thing and not poop and that it moved … but i probably scared it as much as it scared me.
don’t know why it was on the ground … injured or too cold maybe? poor thing.
hope you and don have a great weekend! stay safe.
kathy
I’m glad you’re okay and I hope the bat is okay.
Speaking of Shirley Temple, I have a photo of my mother and her older sister in Shirley Temple dresses sent from America by their great aunt Mariah.
I think that I have mentioned Mariah some time ago. She emigrated to the States on her own as a very young woman in 1906. She lived in New York and eventually married Uncle Max and settled in Denver.
They never had children. During the Second World War, Mariah arranged for food and clothing parcels to be sent to my mother’s family via the American Red Cross.
My mother never forgot these acts of kindness during desperate times.
Happy Friday
Aunt Mariah sounds like a truly lovely person, Dee Dee. Bless her.
Stay safe.
That’s a bummer about Mere and Covid. I don’t get it — if people know, they should say. I hope she’s much improved and back to full strength soon.
Please share the before and after pix of Shirley! I love the care you take in preserving the dolls (and all you preserve).
Have a terrific weekend. May the rain stop soon!
I’ll try to take a before picture this morning – though her hair has been turned to a fluffy mess because of the need to get rid of the mats.
We have one day without rain – today. Then a mix of rain and snow tomorrow.
Stay safe, Jeanie.